Skip to main content
MathOverflow

Return to Question

added references and tag (copied from a later better written duplicate post)
Source Link
YCor
YCor
  • 63.9k
  • 5
  • 187
  • 286

For any positive $p,q\in\mathbb{N}$ there is a finite subset $S$ of $\{\frac{1}{n}:n\in\mathbb{N}, n\geq 1\}$ such that $\sum_{s\in S} s=\frac{p}{q}$, see this article by Paul Erdös and Sherman Stein (Sums of distinct unit fractions. Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society, 14(1), 126-131, 1963.) . Let $m(p,q)$ denote the minimal cardinality of such a setsubset $S$. Is there a polynomial-time algorithm to determine $m(p,q)$?

For any positive $p,q\in\mathbb{N}$ there is a finite subset $S$ of $\{\frac{1}{n}:n\in\mathbb{N}, n\geq 1\}$ such that $\sum_{s\in S} s=\frac{p}{q}$. Let $m(p,q)$ denote the minimal cardinality of such a set $S$. Is there a polynomial-time algorithm to determine $m(p,q)$?

For any positive $p,q\in\mathbb{N}$ there is a finite subset $S$ of $\{\frac{1}{n}:n\in\mathbb{N}, n\geq 1\}$ such that $\sum_{s\in S} s=\frac{p}{q}$, see this article by Paul Erdös and Sherman Stein (Sums of distinct unit fractions. Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society, 14(1), 126-131, 1963.) . Let $m(p,q)$ denote the minimal cardinality of such a subset $S$. Is there a polynomial-time algorithm to determine $m(p,q)$?

Source Link
Dominic van der Zypen
Dominic van der Zypen
  • 48.9k
  • 8
  • 47
  • 162

Minimum number of unit fractions to sum up a given positive rational

For any positive $p,q\in\mathbb{N}$ there is a finite subset $S$ of $\{\frac{1}{n}:n\in\mathbb{N}, n\geq 1\}$ such that $\sum_{s\in S} s=\frac{p}{q}$. Let $m(p,q)$ denote the minimal cardinality of such a set $S$. Is there a polynomial-time algorithm to determine $m(p,q)$?